Debra Messing was told she needed bigger boobs to be on TV.
The 54-year-old actress was gearing up to shoot her now-signature role as Grace Adler in the NBC sitcom Will & Grace opposite Eric McCormack in 1998 when she got the rude news.
The star claimed that the president of the studio wanted her to have a more ample chest.
But she refused to comply.
According to People, she shared during the Magic Of Will And Grace panel at the Paley Center for Media on Monday, ‘The very first fitting, they had the chicken cutlets to make me bigger.’
No grace for this star: Debra Messing was once told she needed ‘bigger boobs’ to be on TV’s Will & Grace, she said during a Monday panel in NYC, according to People; seen in 2000
Her chest was on show: Here she is seen in a nude tank top in a scene with Eric McCormack
‘I just wasn’t a fan of, like, the whole idea of it. I was like, “You know what? I don’t need that,”‘ she said.
‘And they’re like, “Well, it’s the president of the network [saying this].” And I said, “If he wants it, then he needs to come here and tell me to my face.”‘
There was even an episode where she wore a water bra to increase the size of her chest.
The bra hilariously malfunctioned and shot out water.
The former Smash star went on to add that when she began working on Will & Grace she was a size eight and ended up ‘hating her body’ after certain costumes did not fit her and got ‘way too skinny’ after losing weight for the sake of her job.
She added: ‘When I started Will & Grace, I was a size eight, and what happened was, every time I would go in for a fitting I couldn’t fit into clothes.
‘Eighty percent of it I couldn’t fit into, and I would just leave hating my body and hating myself.
Radiant rehead: Debra, seen at Cannes in 2002, spoke candidly about her body image issues that were exacerbated by studio execs
Size shouldn’t matter: Debra, seen in September 1999, recounted how doors opened up for her when she lost weight
‘I loved my costume designer, she would always say, “Don’t worry,” and she would talk to her assistant and say, “OK, can you call over and get a larger size?”
‘And that was sort of the thing that was always on repeat all the time.
‘So of course, I thought, “My life would be so much easier, and it would be easier on everybody trying to do their job, if I just lost weight.”
‘So I started doing yoga every single day and I did one of those meal delivery services.
‘I started to get smaller and then I was a six, and they were like, “You’re losing weight, you look amazing!”‘
Yes they did: The size of her chest was a running joke on the show; seen with Megan Mullally
Still a stunner: Messing at The Impact Of Will & Grace: 25 Years Later at Paley Museum on Monday in New York City
‘I got way too skinny. But, you know, going in for those fittings, I fit into everything,’ she explained.
‘And all of a sudden, I literally could fit into anything that was high fashion. So all of a sudden, everything seemed to open up for me, because I was a two.
‘For awhile there, I was maintaining that, and then I got sick. My body just could not hold out.’
‘My adrenals crashed, I was exhausted and it just became clear to me that I couldn’t be healthy and a size two at the same time.’
